Fishermen stop the first artificial cliff of Europe

The project to create the first artificial cliff for European surf in the southern cost of England will be postponed because of the protests the local fishermen presented.
The cliff is a £1,4 million investment approximately and will be located on Boscombe coast, in Dorset, and it’s expected that 10.000 surfers every year will be received in this coastal city.

The project consists of sinking geotextiles bags full of eastern sand from Boscombe espigon. It’s aimed to endure waves over 4 m. and to increase the amount of days surfing could be practiced on this area to 150 surfing days a year.
However, local fishermen have pronounced against these plans in Boscombe.

Local association have presented their objections in the Bureau of Rural affairs (Defra), because they are afraid of the possible consequences that proyect could cause on the environment and on the local fishing.

According to the Bournemouth Council the cliff would have a neutral effect on the environment and sea fauna would not be damage because of the construction. They even confirm that sea fauna would be increased with more crabs and molluscs that would regenerate the cliff.

The construction had been planned to start this spring/summer and it was expected to be finished on September this year, but current problems will cause a delay on their plans. The sand bags are 35m long and it’s planned to distribute them in a way that they allow to ride waves with a 70m. route, with a sizes from 0,5m to 4m.

Even though the same kind of cliffs have already been built in Australia and New Zealand, Boscombe’ s will be the first artificial cliff for European surf and for the whole north hemisphere.

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